Tool chests and cabinets on shop floors are often equipped with locks to protect the valuable tools or things stored therein. Such lockable tool containers are typically provided with a mechanical lock which is manually operated by the turning of a conventional key.
It has been proposed to add remote-controlled locking and unlocking capability to a tool container. The remote control feature potentially can provide significant convenience to the user. By actuating a button on a remote control unit, the user can unlock or lock a tool cabinet across the shop floor, without having to walk over to the tool cabinet to manually turn the key.
Although the convenience provided by the remote control feature is desirable, it is, however, not a simple matter to implement the remote control mechanism. The difficulty is in coordinating the manual key operation with the electronically controlled operation so that no undesirable interference between the two will occur. If the electronically controlled locking mechanism is not well integrated with the manual locking mechanism, the lock system will be cumbersome to use. The operational inconvenience caused by the lack of coordination between the manual and electronically controlled operations may actually outweigh the potential convenience provided by the remote control feature.